As reported in Victoria News, Laurel Point Park is contaminated and the City of Victoria is looking at a potential $5-million bill to clean it up.

The City will spend up to $350,000 to confirm the degree of contamination and create a remediation plan.

The park, located along the David Foster Harbour Pathway next to property owned by Transport Canada, is contaminated with high levels of metal and petroleum hydrocarbons in the soil and groundwater, according to a staff report presented to council last week. Chemical discharges from nearby property likely contaminated the aquatic environment, water and the soil because of area’s industrial past, the report stated.

Laurel Point Park, Victoria, B.C.

For now, there is little risk to the public. Counsellor Chris Coleman said the contamination is capped and secured, as long as it is left alone.

“If there was (a risk to the public), then we would close the park,” he said.

“It’s the sort of thing that we’ve seen in the past, when there was leeching from the Hartland Road landfill,” Coleman added. “It went into the groundwater … it then caused an algal bloom in the Butchart Gardens. That’s what you’re trying to control for here.”

The park, and the surrounding lands on the Laurel Point peninsula, were burial grounds for the Songhees people prior to 1885, after which it was used by various industrial facilities, including paint factories, machine shops, and for processing coal and oil.

Victoria council approved the next stage of SLR Consulting’s environmental investigation using money from the environmental remediation funds in city’s financial plan for 2017.

The next step in the process is a risk assessment, with an estimated cost of up to $150,000. It will take an additional $50,000 for the remediation plan, and up to $5 million to put the plan into action.

The surrounding land owned by Transport Canada will also have to be excavated and disposed off-site, according to preliminary reports.